Antony Reveals Liverpool Bid and Klopp's Interest as Salah Replacement

Antony’s Manchester United story has been dissected from every angle. The fee. The performances. The fall-out. Now, from Seville, the Brazilian has added a twist that drags Liverpool and Mohamed Salah into the tale.

The winger, enjoying a resurgence at Real Betis with 14 goals and 10 assists in 46 games this season, has revealed that United were not the only English giant pushing hard for his signature in 2022. Speaking to ESPN Brazil, he said Liverpool – and Jurgen Klopp himself – tried to bring him to Anfield at the height of uncertainty over Salah’s future.

A sliding-doors moment in 2022

Antony’s move from Ajax to Old Trafford for around £82 million was framed as Erik ten Hag’s big attacking bet. The Dutchman knew him, trusted him and pushed hard to make him the statement signing of his first summer.

But behind that headline move, another story was playing out.

“When I went to Manchester United, I had a proposal from Liverpool, from Klopp, on the table,” Antony recalled. “It was also very good. Salah was negotiating a departure, but he ended up staying. Then the manager called me. The name of Manchester United carries weight.”

Liverpool, according to Antony, were bracing for life without their talisman. Salah was locked in contract talks, his future uncertain, and Klopp was assessing alternatives. Antony was one of them. A concrete offer went in. A plan was forming.

Then Salah stayed. And the picture changed.

United, still desperate to arm Ten Hag with familiar firepower, pushed the deal over the line. Antony followed his former Ajax coach to Manchester. Liverpool, with Salah tied down, moved on.

Salah stays, United gamble, paths diverge

Seen from today, Antony’s revelation lands with extra weight.

Salah went on to sign a new deal and remained the heartbeat of Liverpool’s attack, stretching his stay on Merseyside by four more years. In that time he added another Premier League title and continued to pile up numbers that place him among the club’s greatest forwards: 257 goals in 442 appearances in all competitions.

This season, though, showed the first real signs of decline, with just 12 goals in 41 matches. For the first time, the output dipped. The questions grew louder. Yet his status at Liverpool, built over years of relentless production, stayed intact.

Antony’s trajectory could hardly have been more different.

The Brazilian never came close to justifying that £82m price tag at Old Trafford. Flashes of quality, yes, but never the sustained influence United had paid for. Form wavered, confidence ebbed, and the scrutiny turned unforgiving. By last summer, his time at the club was over, his move to Betis drawing a line under a bruising Premier League chapter.

“A bit of a lack of respect”

From Spain, Antony has been careful not to launch a full-scale attack on United. Still, his comments hint at a dressing-room and environment where he never truly felt at home.

“Look, I'm not the kind of guy who gets involved in controversies, who names people, in fact, I won't mention anyone's name here,” he told ESPN Brazil. “But I think there was a bit of a lack of respect there, even a bit of rudeness too, with no one giving you a good morning, a good afternoon.

“Not even that. But, anyway, that's in the past, I won't give much importance to these things. Now I'm here, at Betis, I'm living here, that's the most important thing for me.”

No names. No direct accusations. Yet the picture is clear enough: a record signing walking into a fractured environment and never quite feeling embraced.

What might have been at Anfield?

The counterfactual hangs in the air. How different might Antony’s career look had Salah walked away and Klopp’s call ended with the Brazilian in red, not red and white?

At Liverpool, he would have arrived not as Ten Hag’s personal project but as the man tasked with filling Salah’s shadow – a different kind of pressure, but also a clearly defined role in a system that has elevated forwards time and again. Instead, he became the symbol of United’s scattergun rebuild, judged as much on his price as his performances.

Antony, now rebuilt and reborn at Betis, insists he has moved on. Yet his story of Klopp’s proposal and Liverpool’s contingency plan underlines how fine the margins are at the top of the game.

One contract signed. One phone call answered. One decision to follow a familiar coach.

And a career, for better or worse, veers down a completely different path.